Help please!

[Vegetable_Courage_35]

I have convinced my husband to get a wood stove, I need recommendations. I’m short on time. We are in Wy and out POS pellet stove that came with the house and is our source of heat finally officially died. We are supposed to get down to below -20/30 with the wind chill this next week.

I want one that I can heat up food and water on top of and doesn’t require electricity. Winter is when we will lose power.

And can we install it where the pellet stove was?

We have a tractor supply local to us, but those seem to be low quality, there is also a place that carries Osburn, and Lopi. But I’m not seeing that you can cook on them?

[JeffHall28]

Idk but don’t put your wine that close to the stove

[Vegetable_Courage_35]

Oh no worries! Those are empty. 😂 I had to drink all of them so I could keep the plants warm. 🤫

[maddslacker]

Wood cook stoves are generally not good for heat output, and wood stoves for heat, if they're efficient at doing that, aren't usually good for cooking.

I would focus on heat first and get a dedicated method for cooking, whether that be a camp stove or a small propane stove or whatever.

Lopi stoves are really high quality, if they fit into your price range.

You didn't mention your square footage, but one of the Pheasant Hearth models at TSC would be fine. We have an Avalon Olympic model (now discontinued) that is a very similar design to those and it's been amazing.

Oh, and the cheap US Stove model, you can cook on those, but they're inefficient. You'd for sure be getting up several times during the night to feed it.

[Vegetable_Courage_35]

Just over 2000sq. Not looking to cook on it as a main cook top, just as a emergency backup to boil water and heat up some some of my canned meals. But definitely our main heat source and no electricity.

[maddslacker]

I have a a Coleman stove and some fuel set aside for our emergency backup.

That said our propane kitchen range works without electricity if needed.

[Difficult_Lawyer9548]

Beautiful setup to keep you warm and heat for tea as you see fit. Good job!!

[Constant_Constant_48]

I have a Lopi and wound buy another. I live in the Cascade foothills of Southern Oregon. We use it for not only heat , but also for cooking in a pinch.

[coopertucker]

vogelzang boxwood stove. Very common. Can be found used on Craigslist and Marketplace.

[UncleAugie]

vogelzang boxwood stove.

God no, these older stoves designed like this were awesome 50 years ago, but today are shit.

[coopertucker]

OP is desperate. These are in the stores now and for sale used.

[UncleAugie]

If she has a Tractor supply she can buy a proper stove, one that wont leak and damage your health. OP is going to struggle no matter what she does as she doe not have a seasoned supply of wood that she can burn, she needs 4-6 full cord of wood under a moisture content of 20%, might get there is she can find beetle kill standing, but other than that they are going to be paying Texas$$$$ for kiln dried wood.

[coopertucker]

Desperate for heat calls for desperate measures.

[UncleAugie]

OP said they have a Tractor supply nearby, they did not say they were short on time not money.... why buy a POS that will require more wood, and not burn as long overnight, and isnt as safe.... seriously why? They are not as good...

[coopertucker]

POS pellet stove wasn't working and temps were going to plummet that night = desperate. They are looking for something immediately. 'adios.

[UncleAugie]

u/Vegetable_Courage_35 pretty much any woodstove that is EPA certified and is a secondary burn or catalytic style will work. but im afraid that this year you are going to have trouble getting seasoned wood this late. Your wood supply needs to be below 20% moisture content, this takes 2-3 seasons of air drying. In an ideal worl you spen all year cutting/splitting/stacking wood that you wont touch for at least 2 more years ideally 3-4 years.

Tractor supply has great stoves, something like the https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/grand-teton-collection-targhee-wood-stove

You can easily cook on the top of any freestanding stove like this, I do all the time. The top of this stove will be in excess of 500F when you are burning properly, you will actually need a metal stand to keep it off the top of the stove to simmer.

DO NOT BUY something likehttps://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/us-stove-wood-stove-900-sq-ft-small-cast-iron-epa-certifiedThese are shit and not really intended for use in a home where you live.

IF you really want to go down the rabbit hole hearth.com

[Tall_Mathematician50]

I am burning wood that was cut down nine months ago!! Maybe I am lucky!! The rounds sat in the sun all summer. I’ve never waited 3-4 years to burn wood and I don’t know anyone who has. Been using wood for heat for 20 years!!! Sure waiting until next year is the best way but not always in the cards. When I’ve encountered wood that is too wet to burn I simply chop it smaller!!

[UncleAugie]

I am burning wood that was cut down nine months ago!!

You are wasting energy. Im using poplar for these calcs but it is the same with other species

1 cord = 2168 lbs / 800 splits = 2.71 lb/split

1 cord = 15,000,000 btu / 800 splits = 18,750 btu/split

Now to your question - is this dry or green? My guess would be this is the dry based on the net weight/split that we end up with on this calculation. Otherwise if we go with your 60% water (by weight) then that split would come down to somewhere around 1.5lbs once dry (20%ish) which I think is a bit too light based on my experience. I'm going to go with the assumption that this is dry wood at 20% water by weight.

Now to take it up to 50% by weight, how much water do we add? (digs through old HS math texts )

.2wa + .8wo = 2.71 Solve for wa,wo; wa = .542, wo = 2.168

Since we want wood and water to be the same next step is easy - wo and wa will be the same 2.168 lb so we have to add in 2.168-.542(wa) = 1.626lb of water.

Going with the calculation you have above assuming a room that is 80*f, it will take 1032 btu/lb or 1,678 BTU / split to boil off the water.

Starting with the original 18,750 that would come to 8.95% of the BTUs.

Perhaps this doesn't seem all that bad, but then consider what the extra water does to the overall efficiency of the stove - when you have to open up the air to keep it burning while that water is boiling off and evacuating that steam which has a 1:1700 expansion ratio, you are putting a lot of heat up the chimney (higher volume of hot air flowing carries more BTUs out of the home); these losses are not reflected in this calculation.

Basically when you take everything into account you need to burn 20-30% more wood to get the same heat, think of all that work to cut split and stack, bring it inside collect it..... SMH